I arrived in Georgia two years after Jimmy Carter left the White House, and so, never got to know the group known somewhat disparagingly by Washington insiders as “The Georgia Mafia” while they were in power. But I did become familiar with and a friend of a number of them in their post-Carter years. Bert Lance – director of the Office of Management and Budget; Stu Eizenstat – Domestic Policy Advisor; Terry Adamson – spokesman in Carter’s Justice Department; Jay Beck, White House aide and Steve Selig – deputy assistant to Carter were all Georgia men who took the ride to Washington with Jimmy Carter. Of all of them, it was Hamilton Jordan who would become most important in my personal life. I covered his 1986 campaign for the U.S. Senate, which he undertook even as he was recovering from his first bout with cancer. He was a long shot candidate; Congressman Wyche Fowler was expected to win the Democratic nomination, and eventually did. Hamilton decided to challenge Fowler in part, I think, because he didn’t like Fowler very much. But as I traveled the state watching his campaign unfold, I often thought that in some ways Hamilton did it simply for the adventure of making the race. I have vivid memories of going on a road trip with him to Savannah. We crossed over the gnat line (where the geography of Georgia changes dramatically from rolling hills and mountains to long stretches of flatlands) and where gnats become prolific), passed through South Georgia pecan groves, and rode across the marshes along the coast, and what I remember best about that trip is how much we laughed. There was a carefree nature to Hamilton throughout that campaign that made it a great pleasure to spend time with him. Years later, my 26-year-old son Bill and Hamilton’s daughter Kathleen became good friends during their time as students at Westminster Schools. Bill and Kathleen shared a certain disdain for the homogeneity of Westminster and they both had strong notions about the importance of justice and equality for all people. Bill began spending long stretches of time at the Jordan house, where Dorothy and Hamilton treated him like an extended member of the family. Bill came to cherish his conversations with Hamilton, who was smart and funny and – yes – always a bit of a wiseass. Hamilton became something of a mentor to my son during a time in Bill’s life when he needed someone outside his own family to help him feel grounded. And I know Bill misses him to this day. My son was in the studio when we recorded the conversation with Kathleen and Dorothy. It was a joy for me to have Bill sit in, so he could be in the room to hear the stories about Hamilton’s young life, which is described in the memoir "A Boy From Georgia." I hope you enjoy these stories as much as Bill and I did when we recorded this show.

From Left to Right: Bill, Kathleen Jordan, and Dorothy Jordan

From Left to Right: Bill, Kathleen Jordan, and Dorothy Jordan